Server Error in '/thevgdb' Application.
Invalid column name 'NAME'.
Invalid column name 'NAME'.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Searching using the Games section, entering Zelda in the name input field and then searching gives me results.

2. I'm assuming hitting Enter/Return is the hotkey for the top search box, not the one for the form currently used? 'Cause going into the Platforms section, entering NES in the abbreviation input field and hitting Enter gives me

Code:

Please enter in a search criteria and try again.

which is what happens if you press the top search button without entering anything. Inputing NES and clicking the Search button in that form field works just fine.

3. Searching for a platform, and then clicking its name, gives me this:

Code:

Server Error in '/thevgdb' Application.
A field or property with the name 'ReleaseDate' was not found on the selected data source.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: A field or property with the name 'ReleaseDate' was not found on the selected data source.

4. Not really an error, merely just a wondering: what is the 'back' button for in the search form? It goes to the start page ... seems unnecessary to me, but

5. When searching for a game, and then on the bottom of that games info page is a link, "Back to Game Search", this brings you to the search page, not your previous search results. That would be nice. Say I search for "Zelda" and am wanting to browse through all the Zelda games found on the site. Its tedious to search for one, clicking it, going back, searching again, cliking the next one, going back ... eliminates a few steps. Though I'm sure most people use the back button in their browser, it's a behaviour I would have.

Apart from that, great initative! There really needs to be a site that has the info, the covers and the screenshots in one place. Moby Games has alot, but it's not put together in a uniform way. There should be the games "plot", what the story is about (preferably a short one and a longer one), and then a "game description" that tells you everything else (game type, character stuff, how many levels or whatever). One thing I like about Moby Games though, is that it has multiple covers and screenshots. If this is going to be used for an XBMC scraper at some point, I think there has to be alternative artwork to choose from if you don't like the default (say you're getting the NTSC version of a cover, and you're used to the PAL version which might not look the same).

And that'd be my two cents .. or 15 bucks .. I have got to learn to narrow things down.

@filigran - Excellent testing! Most of those were bugs that I should have caught but I didn't. Based on your feedback:

1 - Fixed! I forgot to change the code to reflect the multilang changes.
2 - Fixed! The default button on all the Search pages is now the Search button. Please let me know if you run across any other instances like that.
3 - Fixed! Another code change I missed.
4 - The link is just there for consistency. I'll probably make it return to the previous page instead of the home page one day.
5 - Agreed. It is an annoyance. I'll have to research a good way of doing that and make that change.

I did go ahead and upload fixes for 1 - 3. Again, excellent testing and thanks for the feedback.

@malte - I wanted to group all the all the fields for a language into one node in the event that the call resulted in more than one language and you were only looking for one language. Instead of parsing 15 nodes, you could just find the parent language node and only get the fields inside that node. Plus I wanted it flexible in the event we added more fields in the future. Would it make more sense to rename the Name field to "GameName"?

jas8340 Wrote:@filigran - Excellent testing! Most of those were bugs that I should have caught but I didn't. Based on your feedback:

...snip...

I did go ahead and upload fixes for 1 - 3. Again, excellent testing and thanks for the feedback.

Y/w, and fast response, me like.

Found some more things while looking around:

1. Suggestion: the name of the system in search results.

2. Another one: Alot of games originally made for NES are available for GBA and Wii, shouldn't they be listed as platforms for a game, too? Might be unnecessary, I don't know. Just a thought.

3. Minor spelling error that leads me to another question (two actually): "Super mario brothers 3" is called "Super Mario borthers 3". I notcied that searching for "mario" finds it, but "brothers" doesn't since it's spelled wrong in the database. Can this be compensated some how in the search engine? Like "did you mean <insert closest match here>?" or something. Atleast when no match is found. Not sure how that would work, but it'd be an improvement. Also, I would call this game "super mario bros 3", and some might want the dot there: "super mario bros. 3", are you planning on incorporating "a.k.a.'s"? Another example would be MegaMan. Some know those games as RockMan, although both are the same game.

4. Another suggestion: There could be a "game is part of this series" thingie, where all the super mario games would be grouped together, all the megaman/rockman, all the zeldas etc. Easy to find sequels.

Hey guys, my development PC at home died. I've ordered a new computer but it is going to be a week or so until it arrives. The good news is that I didn't lose any code but the downside is that I lost my development database.

jas8340 Wrote:Hey guys, my development PC at home died. I've ordered a new computer but it is going to be a week or so until it arrives. The good news is that I didn't lose any code but the downside is that I lost my development database.

When you say the PC died, do you mean it burnt to the ground and is now ashes? Otherwise, wouldn't the HDD be salvageable? If it's a laptop it might be trickier, but instead alot more fun.

Not sure if there was a power surge or what, but the mobo died and seems like the hard drive went with it. I've tried to recover the data but it hard drive doesn't spin. I even tried the freezer trick . Thankfully the PC has shipped and should arrive this weekend.

I am sorry to say that I temporarily deactivated the scraper for videogamedb in RCB. It takes several seconds to make a request to your site and there is nearly no game found in its current state. So it slows down the whole scraping process without any results.

Everything is still there and can be easily reactivated if you have your stuff up and running again. I will watch out for updates.

jas8340 Wrote:Sure, I don't see where that's a problem. All you have to do is add "PC" as the platform and you are good to go. The only place where it might get a little hairy is if you wanted to differentiate between MS-DOS games and Windows-Only games. That's why I think the catch-all "PC" would probably be the better option.

You could make PC the main platform and in the info you could have a subcategory for Operating System(s) ppl could checkmark what OS this was released for. You could have a section for ports where people have ported to other Operating System(s) or Platforms.

Like Starcraft 2 was released for Windows and Mac. It works in Linux under WINE.